Future Upgrades:
Lighter fork - while I love the feel of the coil Pike it's a tank at 5lbs... (contemplating a lowered lyrik solo air for the stiffness and would still drop weight, or one of the 34mm stanchion offerings)

Future Upgrades:
Lighter fork - while I love the feel of the coil Pike it's a tank at 5lbs... (contemplating a lowered lyrik solo air for the stiffness and would still drop weight, or one of the 34mm stanchion offerings)

Very Nice. I was worried about weight up front as well. This is one of the reasons I went with the 44 RC3 Ti. Even though it is the heaviest 44 Marzocchi makes. The fork comes in at around 4 pounds, which is not bad for a coil, openbath fork. So far the fork is super solid.

I decided to go without a adjustable post for now. I am tired of blowing them up. I have owned four different brands. I will buy a new one as soon as a company can come up with a design that can last for a couple years without failure

At first my Nickle was working great but now the rear is flexing terribly. The rear end keeps wanting to follow the terrain versus following the front tire. When I am on off camber terrain the brakes will drag and the rear wheel will not track behind the front wheel. I am thinking about using a bolt on conversion for my rear wheel might stiffin it up a tad.

At first my Nickle was working great but now the rear is flexing terribly. The rear end keeps wanting to follow the terrain versus following the front tire. When I am on off camber terrain the brakes will drag and the rear wheel will not track behind the front wheel. I am thinking about using a bolt on conversion for my rear wheel might stiffin it up a tad.

At first my Nickle was working great but now the rear is flexing terribly. The rear end keeps wanting to follow the terrain versus following the front tire. When I am on off camber terrain the brakes will drag and the rear wheel will not track behind the front wheel. I am thinking about using a bolt on conversion for my rear wheel might stiffin it up a tad.

The bike is still really nice.

Definitely not a bad idea to check all of your pivot bolts, etc...or play in the rear hub possibly? It seems strange that it rode well at first and now is riding differently, something doesn't sound right there.

That said, when I first built my Nickel up it was with a XT wheelset with a standard quick release. The switch to the my current setup with the bolt up hub made a very noticeable difference in stiffness out back.

The Nickel Project Begins

I just picked the small Santa Cruz Nickel frame from backcountry.com for $600.00. I scored on a new 2012 Fox Float 120 RLC FIT from Jenson.com for $349.00. The returned fork had a steerer tube cut to 170mm so I new my choices for short headtubes were limited. The SC Nickel's headtube lenght was 3.9". Any suggestions for a mixed tapered headset? I'm going 2x10!